Tag Archives: Social Networking

I’m a regular consumer of and contributor to Pinterest and StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon’s mission, of course, is to deliver the best of the web based on personal tastes, and I happen to use Pinterest in a way that leads me to other sites with similar content — i.e., compelling visual art and photography.

I’ve arrived at many destinations just by clicking through to the original sources of things I find interesting:

The more this happens with the same sites, the more I seek them out specifically. I now frequently rebroadcast content from these portals on my Twitter stream, or mention them here — in addition to simply enjoying what they have to offer.

7 websites with highly tweetable content

What do you think? What are some new-to-you websites you have enjoyed lately? Do you click through images or writing you like to other sources and find interesting destinations? Let us hear from you in the comments.

The new Flickr app for iPhone sports filters, easy browsing, a nice uploading interface… all on top of Flickr’s superb online Pinterest & Twitter integration. Overall, I must say it looks like Instagram got Flickr to step up its game. To that I say, well-played, Flickr. Well-played indeed.

Operation: Target Instagram

If Instagram feels like it’s in the crosshairs, it’s with good reason. I had long been a fan of Flickr for general storage, but gravitated toward Instagram for the image discovery & immediacy of sharing. I have a feeling that’s going to change. And not just for me — I know more than a few folks who have been less than pleased with and seeking alternatives to Instagram lately thanks to spam or yanking its previews from Twitter.

This is not to say it’s perfect. It’s still not as snappy as Instagram, since applying filters and edits takes a bit longer — but you can do meaningful edits right from within the app like adding text, brightness/contrast, and basic retouching. You have to use a separate 3rd party app at present to do any of that for an Instagram upload. Conversely, features like the ability to tag people in photos, browse your favorite groups, and do batch uploads (thanks, Emily @_@) were already baked into Flickr. Having these tools now in the mobile app — along with just basic functionality like being able to zoom in — makes Flickr’s app superior to Instagram on a number of noticeably important fronts.

Given the massive leap forward of this latest edition, I’m optimistic that things will only improve further for Flickr going forward. Here’s a closer look with video of the new app from Flickr’s blog:

What do you think? Are you a fan of Instagram or other online photo networks? What’s your experience with Flickr been like? Let us hear from you in the comments.

So I’ve committed to writing at least one post per month on social media. Sometimes it happens organically, sometimes deliberately. This is one of those deliberate months, what with this being the final hours of the month. But this is a good one – in fact, it’s the very best… of my Twitter over the past few weeks.

Man, I love embedding tweets

Here are some of my favorite tweets I crafted this month, to give a little more depth to the hyper-fleeting nature of our favorite micro-blogging platform. Oh, and you should follow me on Twitter if you’re at all amused by any of this…

Started off this month with a visit to a local winery, Divine Llama Vineyards. Made for a sweet photo-op and a Foursquare moment:

What was your best tweet this month? Did you discover any great new Twitterers to follow? Do you participate in Twitter chats or share updates though other networks? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Here are five Twitter tools to give insight or new functionality to your Twitter experience, without requiring much more than a login on your part. These utilities are so self-explanatory, I hardly feel the need to add descriptions. But that’s what makes them worthwhile: instant benefit and utility with minimal explanation.

Review of Twitter Helpers

I’ve used each of these consistently, so I can personally vouch for their value. Each is good for a different function, and while not necessarily the most feature-rich, the benefit is immediate and actionable — those are the criteria I’m evaluating for the purposes of this post. See if you agree.

Before I started using Hootsuite (not detailed here because it’s slightly more intricate), I was a longtime user of Dynamic Tweets to schedule tweets. You pick a date, compose your tweet, and you’re all set. It works especially well for recurring tweets, such as yearly holiday-themed tweets.

Does it annoy you when someone doesn’t follow you back? Hey, it happens. Check out ManageFilter to see who’s not following you back , when you started following them, and other useful details that can help weed out your stream.

If you’re a visual learner like I am, you’ll love TweetStats. It’s a detailed, informative representation in chart form of how your Twitter activity looks to the outside world. It’s a good way to keep tabs on what you’re sharing, and to help balance your efforts if needed. NOTE: TweetStats is sometimes buggy or slow to load, but it’s worth the wait — just let it do its thing and try again later if it gets stuck. In the meantime, If you’re looking for something similar but not as detailed, check out Tweetcharts.